1 Cor. VI, 11. And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.
1 Cor. III, 19. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God: for it is written, He taketh the wise in their own craftiness.
Gal. IV, 6. And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father.
1 John III, 24. And he that keepeth his commandments dwelleth in him, and he in him. And hereby we know that he abideth in us, by the Spirit which he hath given us.
Eph. II, 22. In whom ye also are builded together for a habitation of God through the Spirit.
BOOK II.
DOCTRINES RELATING TO MAN.
"And God said, Let us make man in our own image, after our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every thing that creepeth upon the earth. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them." (Gen. i, 26, 27.) Man was created in the image of God, and invested with dominion and authority. St. Paul, in Col. iii, 10, says: "Put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him," and in Eph. iv, 24, "Put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness." From these passages it is evident that the image of God consists in "knowledge," in "righteousness," and in "true holiness." The likeness of God in which man was created was that of the moral perfections of his Maker. That this moral image of God in man implies and rests upon the natural image of God, must be apparent; for unless he had been endowed with knowledge, spirituality, and will, he would have been wholly incapable of moral qualities. In the Book of Wisdom, which conveys the ideas of the ancient Jews, we find this language: "For God created man to be immortal, and made him to be an image of his own eternity." As a moral being, man was created under law; the language of which was: "Of every tree of the garden mayest thou freely eat, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it; for in the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die." Gen. ii, 16, 17. The history informs us that the woman, tempted through the agency of the serpent, which was "more subtile than any beast of the field," took of the fruit, gave it to her husband, who also ate; that for this act of disobedience they were expelled from the garden, made subject to death, and laid under other maledictions. "By Adam's transgressions," says Paul, Rom. v, "many were made sinners." Through him death passed upon all men. As the federal head of the race, he was the fountain of sin and death to his posterity.
The prohibition under which our first parents were placed has been the subject of much ridicule, and the occasion of many a "fool-born jest;" and the whole transaction has been declared to be unworthy of the parties concerned. Where would the test be placed if not in the government of man's own appetites? Social and political relations he had none. We do not suppose that the prohibition under which our first parents were placed was the only rule of their conduct. This precept was made prominent by special injunction, and the result showed that it was a sufficient test. The law was simple and explicit. It was not difficult of observation, and it accorded with the circumstances of those on whom it was enjoined.